The Title IV-E Guardianship Assistance Program (GAP): Use of Guardianship is Growing, but Lags Adoption Assistance and is Unevenly Used Across States

Issue Brief - May 2026

This brief provides an overview of the Title IV-E Guardianship Assistance Program (GAP) and analyzes the geographic reach, caseload information, and the cost of the program. Key findings include:

• The geographic reach of the Title IV-E Guardianship Assistance Program (GAP), first authorized in 2008, continues to expand. As of March 2026, 43 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and 12 Indian tribes had approved GAP plans, accounting for about 87 percent of jurisdictions.
• Guardianship caseloads have steadily increased, but lag far behind adoption assistance. By Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23), jurisdictions supported a combined average monthly caseload of 45,153 children in Title IV-E subsidized guardianships, up from 24,689 in FY16 (an 83 percent increase). In comparison, in FY23 the Title IV-E adoption assistance program reported a caseload more than 12 times as high. Another 35,883 children received state funded guardianships outside the Title IV-E program, likely because the children did not meet Title IV-E eligibility requirements.
• Nearly half of the GAP caseloads were in just three states - California, Missouri, and Texas - in FY23, though those states contained just 24 percent of the U.S. population of children under age 18. Nearly three-quarters of GAP placements nationally were in 10 states.
• The size of states' GAP caseloads in relation to their Title IV-E foster care caseloads varies widely. While some states do not participate in GAP or use the program infrequently, in 14 states, there were at least half as many children in Title IV-E guardianships as in Title IV-E foster care. In three states (Missouri, Hawaii, and Connecticut), the number of children receiving federal guardianship assistance in FY23 exceeded the number of children in Title IV-E supported foster care.
• By FY23, exits from foster care to guardianship had nearly doubled from FY10, when the Title IV-E GAP rolled out.
• The Title IV-E GAP has one of the lowest monthly costs per child, compared to other Title IV-E programs. In FY23, GAP and Adoption Assistance cost on average about half as much as Foster Homes and one-fourth as much as Child Care Institutions. Monthly costs per child for GAP and adoption assistance were very similar.
• Eligibility rules, including income requirements, challenge GAP implementation. Supports, such as innovative state resources (e.g., in Texas), can assist kin caregivers.

Read the issue brief: The Title IV-E Guardianship Assistance Program (GAP): Use of Guardianship is Growing, but Lags Adoption Assistance and is Unevenly Used Across States (PDF)